PRESS RELEASE: Dolphins Announce Coaching And Personnel Staff Changes

Daronte Jones has been named assistant defensive backs coach.

The Miami Dolphins today announced Daronte Jones has been named assistant defensive backs coach and that the organization and Eric Stokes have mutually agreed to part ways. Stokes served as the team’s senior personnel executive and assistant general manager for the past two seasons.

Jones arrives in Miami after serving the 2015 season as the defensive backs coach at Wisconsin. In his lone season, Jones helped the Badgers lead the nation with just seven passing touchdowns allowed. Additionally, Wisconsin’s defense ranked second in the Big Ten and seventh nationally in passing defense, allowing just 173.2 passing yards per game. Safety Michael Caputo earned All-Big Ten honors with 65 tackles (36 solo) and two interceptions.

Prior to Wisconsin, Jones spent three seasons (2012-14) as the secondary coach at Hawaii and added assistant head coach responsibilities in 2014. Jones helped improve Hawaii’s pass defense by 62.1 yards per game as the Rainbow Warriors went from 85th nationally in 2011 to the 11th-best passing defense in 2012. Cornerback Mike Edwards was an All-Mountain West selection with 43 total tackles (38 solo), 15 passes broken up, five tackles for loss and two interceptions in 2012. Jones spent the 2011 season as the defensive backs coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League and was a graduate assistant for UCLA in 2010. Jones was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Bowie State for five seasons (2005-09) and previously served as the defensive coordinator at two Louisiana high schools – Franklin High School (2004) and Jeanerette High School (2003). He also spent one season coaching safeties at Nicholls State (2002) and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Lenoir-Rhyme (2001). Jones played four seasons at Morgan State before graduating in 2001. He is a native of Capital Heights, Maryland.

Stokes originally joined the Dolphins on May 15, 2014 after spending two seasons (2012-13) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the director of college scouting. With the Buccaneers, he was responsible for coordinating and compiling the evaluations of all draft-eligible players, while overseeing the entire college scouting staff. Stokes came to the Buccaneers after 14 seasons of playing and scouting experience in the NFL. He worked 12 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks as assistant director of college scouting (2010-11), area scout (2000-01, 2005-09) and as an assistant in the pro personnel department (2002-04). Stokes played two seasons as a safety for the Seahawks after being selected in the fifth round (121st overall) of the 1997 NFL draft. He also was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the 1999 expansion draft. Stokes graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in sociology.